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Final Gainful-Employment Rule Is Expected in October

The Department of Education plans to finalize its controversial gainful-employment rule in October, according to a notice scheduled for publication in Friday’s Federal Register. The rule, which proposes cutting off federal financial aid to programs whose graduates have high rates of default or high levels of student-loan debt relative to their incomes, has been the subject of long and contentious debate.

In 2012 a judge struck down parts of the proposed rule, which was then taken up by a panel of negotiators charged with designing a new one. Those sessions ended in deadlock. The department’s rewrite of the rule was open to public comment until late last month.

For-profit colleges have protested the draft rule, saying it would limit access to higher education for millions of students nationwide.